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Supagroup's mission is simple: The New Orleans-based band is here to rock you senseless.
Later this month, Supagroup return home from a winter tour to celebrate Mardi Gras festivities before heading right back out on the road, bringing their take-no-prisoners rock & roll to Austin, Texas, for the South by Southwest Music Conference. The group will then turn right back around and return to New Orleans for the city's venerable Jazz and Heritage Festival. It's just business as usual for a troupe that prompts comparisons to classic rock & roll road warriors of the past, bands that Supagroup is quick to cite as influences.
"So many people claim to be rock," says singer/guitarist Chris Lee, from Supagroup's ever-roaming van, somewhere in Georgia, "but when we say rock, people understand we're guys that listen to a lot of Van Halen, Led Zeppelin and Black Sabbath. If I were to describe us I'd say we're AC/DC meets Devo. For us, you have to start with Bon Scott-era AC/DC. I also liked Devo's sense of humor and really subversive view of the world, which gets a bit into what we're doing."
If you believe early predictions that rock & roll will be this years' hip-hop, then Supagroup and their new, self-titled album might just do for the genre what OutKast have done for Seventies funk. On Supagroup, the quartet -- Lee, his brother, guitarist Benji, drummer Michael Brueggen and bassist Leif Swift --mixes the classic blues rock of early Stones and Humble Pie with the guitar ferocity of Motorhead and AC/DC. Also in the mix is a touch of the Supersuckers' sly humor and the "drink-and-rock" good-time vibe of the late, lamented Unband. The result is a fairly potent elixir.
Supagroup spent much of 2003 touring with the likes of Queens of the Stone Age, the Drive-by Truckers and Fu Manchu, and they show no signs of slowing down. This year, the band has its sites set for success across the pond, where fellow rocking artists like the Darkness, Andrew W.K. and Jet have been embraced by the U.K. media and fans alike.
A video for the band's new single, "What's Your Problem?" is currently generating some buzz and Supagroup's relentless touring schedule has made their song "Rock and Roll Star" something of an unofficial band anthem. "It's just a song about being on the road, not getting anywhere, playing rock music when nobody likes it, and not giving a fuck," Lee says. "The thing is, despite anything I could complain about, being in a rock & roll band is awesome! When you're doing what you love, it doesn't matter whether you're successful by other people's definition. When you're happy, that's what matters. What makes us happy is rocking for people."
Supagroup tour dates:
2/5: Miami, Churchill's
2/6: St. Petersburg, FL, The Emerald Bar
2/7: Tallahassee, FL, Beta Bar
2/11: New York, Sine
2/13: New York, Plaid
2/14: Richmond, VA, Canal Club
2/20: New Orleans, Tulane University
GAIL WORLEY
(February 5, 2004)